**Exhibit 31.1**

**Certification of Chief Executive OfficerPursuant to Section 302(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.**

I, Louis Tomasetta, certify that: 

|  | 1. | I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation, a Delaware Corporation; |
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|  | 2. | Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstancesunder which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this quarterly report; |
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|  | 3. | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations andcash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report; |
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|  | 4. | The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-14 and 15d-14) for theregistrant and have: |
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|  | a) | designed such disclosure controls and procedures or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant,including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this quarterly report is being prepared; |
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|  | b) | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as ofthe end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and |
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|  | c) | Discussed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal controls over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourthfiscal quarter in the case of the annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonable likely to materially affect, the registrant’s actual controls over financial reporting; and |
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|  | 5. | The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal controls over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the auditcommittee of registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent function): |
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|  | a) | all significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls over financial reporting which are reasonable likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process,summarize and report information; and |
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|  | b) | any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal controls over financial reporting. |
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| Date: August 11, 2003                                                      |   |   |   |
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| /s/ LOUIS R. TOMASETTA                                                     |   |   |        |
|                                                                            |   |   |   |
| **President and Chief Executive Officer****(Principal Executive Officer)** |   |   |   |